1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to nursing bottles and nursing bottle holders, and, more specifically, to bottle holders for use with disposable plastic liners for feeding calves.
2. Background Art
Rigid plastic bottles with nipples, often called sucker bottles, are used to feed calves or other young animals. These bottles are awkward and time consuming to wash, and they sometimes contribute to animal illness or death because of being unsterile. These bottles are awkward to store and take up significant space because they are not stackable or collapsible.
Smaller rigid plastic or glass bottles are used to feed human infants. These bottles must be sterilized or washed very well, especially in the first months of a baby's life, to prevent illness from contamination of the formula or other liquid. Although smaller than the calf bottles, these bottles are still awkward to use and store, because they are not stackable or collapsible.
In the past few years, bottle holders have become very popular for feeding human infants. These holders are hollow, rigid, plastic cylinders with both ends open, and threads on one end to receive a nipple in a screw-on nipple ring. A thin and flexible plastic liner, commonly called a disposable bottle, either in a four ounce or eight ounce size, is placed inside the hollow bottle holder, and the open end of the liner is opened and stretched over the threaded end of the holder to flap over to the outside of the holder. Liquid is then poured into the liner, and the nipple ring with nipple is screwed on to the holder over the thin disposable liner. The tight fit of the nipple ring holding the nipple against the disposable liner and against the threaded end of the holder seals the system together for use without leaks. The disposable liner and the nipple are the only parts that contact the liquid food. The disposable liner is pre-sterilized and normally used only once and so only the nipple must be sterilized or washed with extreme care. This makes for convenient use of the bottle holder system for travelers, day care providers, or for hurried parents.
What is still needed is a bottle holder that can hold and support large, pre-sterilized, disposable liners that would contain large, heavy volumes such as required for a calf, lamb, or other wild or domestic animal. What is still needed is such a bottle holder that is stackable for easier storage.